Structure

Hunger is composed of 88 short chapters that are arranged into 6 major parts. Part I serves as an introductory section to the book in which Gay frames the "story" of her body as one that will defy the expectation of weight loss success narratives. Part I also lays the foundation for many of the major people and events Gay will later discuss at greater length, including her parents and upbringing, a traumatic experience, and her perspective on the way fatness is regarded in America.

Part II is the most linear section of the book in which Gay describes growing up in Omaha, Nebraska and provides a detailed description of her rape at twelve years old. Also included in Part II is Gay's time at Exeter, Yale, and her "lost years" in Arizona, all of which are punctuated by an increasingly fraught relationship with food and her body. Gay...